Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen is testing the waters for a potential White House run in 2028, citing the need for a shakeup of status quo politics and a desire for policies that strongly benefit working families.
“I do think both those races and others around the country show that there’s a real hunger for candidates who want to shake up a very broken status quo,” Van Hollen said. “I think voters are tired of the finger-in-the-wind politics, right? The folks who constantly are just engaged in political calculation rather than expressing their views.”
He has already visited the early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa and endorsed progressives Abdul El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan during their recent Senate primary elections in Michigan and Minnesota, respectively; both of whom won against moderate opponents.
“We need to be against the status quo, and that’s why I’ve been kicking the tires as I look at 2028, because I don’t think the Democratic Party has answered the call about how we’re going to make sure we have an economy that really does work for everybody, especially working people,” he said in an Aug. 31 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think there’s a great deal of churning within the Democratic Party, and I support that. As I said, I think we need this healthy debate, because I don’t think Democrats have put forward a clear alternative to the Trump administration.”
Van Hollen flew to El Salvador in April 2025 to help free Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who multiple federal judges argued was wrongly deported to El Salvador’s CECOT, a notorious supermax prison that faces international allegations of widespread human rights abuses and overcrowding.
He also introduced legislation to strip presidential control of the D.C. National Guard, expand Social Security, and protect federal workers from the cuts envisioned by Project 2025, the conservative roadmap for the second Trump term.
Ian Miller, who was recently reelected to the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee and has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war policies in Gaza, spoke to Van Hollen during the recent Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) conference and was very supportive of the Senator’s record in Washington.
“Senator Van Hollen has been one of the few national Democrats to read the room and advocate for change in our party,” said Miller. “He has been one of the most important progressive voices in our nation.”
Others Vie for the White House as Moore Focuses on Maryland
2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg have all publicly stated their potential interest in running for the White House in 2028. Further, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) have all received media speculation as potential candidates.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has repeatedly stated that he is not running for president; despite that, there is a growing call for the nation’s only Black governor, a U.S. Army veteran, to seek the role of commander in chief. Moore has traveled to South Carolina and Michigan to support Democratic candidates and was a highly visible surrogate during the 2024 presidential contest.
“I’m so excited about what we’re doing. That we’ve gone from 43rd in the country in unemployment to now one of the lowest unemployment rates. We’ve had among the fastest drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America. Our population is growing, Maryland is moving,” Moore said in an interview with The Hill last September. “And so, I’m really excited about going back in front of the people of my state and asking for another term.”
Barry O’Connell, a Maryland political commentator, has launched a social media effort to support Moore for President.
“Like my mama told me when I was a small boy, learning how to play bridge: lead with your longest and your strongest,” O’Connell told The Informer. “Wes Moore is a Democrat ready to meet the moment and has done an outstanding job leading Maryland.”
